April 16, 2002
Chicago, Ill./Walnut Creek, Calif. - Stanford junior designated hitter Jason Cooper (Moses Lake, WA/Moses Lake HS) has been named both the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Hitter and Pac-10 Player of the Week for the first time in his career. Cooper hit four home runs and drove in 10 runs in four games last week, leading the Cardinal to victories in three of the contests. He shared the NCBWA honor with Jesse Novalls of Lehigh.
Cooper started his home run barrage with a three-run shot in the bottom of the eighth inning to help Stanford to a 5-4 comeback win over San Jose State (4/9). He then had the second two-homer game of his career and four RBI in a wild 15-11 loss to USC (4/13) before hitting another three-run homer in a 15-4 win over USC (4/14) in the series finale.
Cooper finished the week with a .400 (6-15) batting average, six runs scored, three walks, 19 total bases and a 1.267 slugging percentage.
Cooper leads the Pac-10 with a .400 batting average, while already establishing new career-highs of 10 homers and 39 RBI in 30 games played.
"Jason is having a great season for us," emphasized Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "He's been one of the keys to our offensive attack all year long."
Cooper was honored by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association on Tuesday, March 16, marking the first time a Stanford player has been honored with a weekly national honor since Jeff Bruksch was selected a Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week by Collegiate Baseball on February 28, 2001.
The Pac-10 Player of the Week award was the 50th time a Stanford player has been selected with the honor and the first time a Cardinal has won the award since John Gall was honored on April 10, 2000.
Stanford (25-8, 4-2 Pac-10) is currently ranked second in the nation and has won 12 consecutive regular season series dating back to last year. Stanford will next host Saint Mary's in a non-conference game this Tuesday, April 16 (6 pm, PT) before returning to conference action with a three-game series at Washington this Friday-Sunday, April 19-21 (6:30 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm, PT).